EDITORIAL: Special Issue on “Recent Advances in Biodegradation, Sanitation, and Bioremediation”

Abstract

Currently, India is considered as one of the fastest developing countries with impressive macroeconomic statistics. Waste generation and its con-sequences is invariably linked with the develop-mental activities, health related issues and industrial progress. According to UNICEF, almost half the population of India (around 595 million people), defecate in the open. India accounts for 90 per cent of the people in South Asia and 59 per cent of the 1.1 billion people in the world who practise open defecation and thereby contributing nearly 65,000 tonnes of faeces into the environment each day (http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/11/Eliminate-Open-Defecation). Open defecation in India, poses a very serious threat to the health and hygiene issues, especially to the children.Keeping in view the need for looking into the scientific and technical advancements in the field of biodegrada-tion and sanitation, in 16-17 December 2014, DRL organized a national conference on “Recent Advances in Biodegradation of Human Wastes”. Sub-sequently, it was decided to bring some of the high quality technical papers presented during the conference, into a form of proceedings as a journal special issue. This issue contains a total of twelve articles.The editors take this opportunity to convey their sincere thanks to all the contributors for submitting their exciting research or review work for bringing the conference proceedings as special journal is-sue. The financial support provided by the DRDO and the DBT, Govt of India is also gratefully acknowledged. We sincerely believe that this syn-thesis of scientific information on biodegradation, sanitation and bioremediation shall be useful for the researchers and policy makers associated with solid waste management.